WE SHALL OVERCOME – The Civil Rights Movement I
1. When We Were Colored I: Social Image and
African-Americans
The images presented in evidence below are drawn from
American popular culture in the 1940s and 1950s. Using these images, develop
and present a theory about the social and cultural status of African-Americans
at that time.
2. When We Were Colored II: Separate But Equal?
The Supreme Court judgment in Plessey v. Fergusson (1896)
established the constitutional basis for segregation. Use the images below to
assist you in developing and presenting a theory about the extent and effects
of segregation in the 1940s and 1950s.
3. When We Were Colored III: Cracks in the Monolith
The Second World War was a turning point in the history of
African-Americans. Very slowly the monolith of segregation and
racial subjection began to crack. Using the evidence below, develop and present
a theory about factors that drove this phenomenon.
4. When We Were Colored IV: The Murder of Emmett Till
In 1955 an African-American teenager named Emmett Till said
something mildly fresh to a white female shopkeeper in Mississippi.
Significantly, Till had been raised in the North, and did not understand “the
rules” in the South. Till was taken away by white supremacists, and murdered
with extraordinary savagery. Till’s mother had his body displayed in an open
coffin to shock Northern white sensibilities. She succeeded. Till’s killers
were acquitted, but the incident did much to heighten Northern awareness of the
plight of Southern blacks.
5. Eyes on the Prize I: The Early Civil Rights Movement
The timeline on the link below summarizes the major events
in the early phase of the Civil Rights movement. Go through the timeline of
events and develop a thesis about this early phase. What were its outstanding
characteristics, its strategy?
6. Eyes on the Prize II: Brown v. Board of Education
of Topeka (1954)
In 1954 the Supreme Court passed a landmark judgment in the
case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The summary of the
judgment is set out in the link below. Read the summary and answer the
questions below:
- What was the judgment of the Court?
- What factors led them to this judgment?
- In your opinion, does the judgment reflect a strict or a loose construction of the Constitution?
- Why was Brown a landmark judgment?
7. Eyes on the Prize III: Martin Luther King, Jr. and his
Philosophy
From 1955 until his murder in 1968 the extraordinary
personality of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. played a dominant role in the Civil
Rights movement. Dr. King’s philosophy was set out in a letter he wrote in 1963
from Birmingham city jail. This letter is set out in the link below. Read the
letter and answer the questions below.
- What is it that draws King to Birmingham?
- What does King see as the four basic steps of a nonviolent campaign?
- What does King mean by “self-purification”?
- Why does King see nonviolent tension as a creative force for growth?
- Why does King see pressure as necessary to achieve social justice?
- How does King justify law breaking in pursuit of justice?
- How does King define a just law?
- What is King’s criticism of white moderates?
- King argues that he is equally critical of what he sees as the two divisions of the black community. How does he characterize these divisions, and what does he see as the way forward?
- What historic examples does King quote in support of his “extremist” position?
- What criticism does King make of the Christian church?
- Why does King criticize the Birmingham police for using a moral means to an immoral end?
- At the end of his letter justifying a revolutionary approach to obtaining social justice, King reveals himself to be a conservative – or at least a traditionalist. How?
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